The present disclosure relates generally to cellular and wireless devices, and more particularly, to cellular and wireless devices having phased antenna arrays.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Transmitters and receivers, or when coupled together as part of a single unit, transceivers, are commonly included in various electronic devices, and particularly, portable electronic devices such as, for example, phones (e.g., mobile and cellular phones, cordless phones, personal assistance devices), computers (e.g., laptops, tablet computers), internet connectivity routers (e.g., Wi-Fi routers or modems), radios, televisions, or any of various other stationary or handheld devices. Certain types of transceivers, known as wireless transceivers, may be used to generate and receive wireless signals to be transmitted and/or received by way of an antenna coupled to the transceiver. Specifically, the wireless transceiver is generally used to wirelessly communicate data over a network channel or other medium (e.g., air) to and from one or more external wireless devices.
Such wireless transceivers typically utilize one or more antennas to transmit and receive radio frequency (RF) signals. A single antenna is relatively limited in the manner in which it can transmit and receive RF signals. However, as the number of antennas increase, additional functionality may be realized. For example, certain techniques may be utilized to determine incidence angles, e.g., angle of departure (AoD) and angle of arrival (AoA), for dual antenna arrays, but dual antenna arrays are still quite limited in their beamforming capabilities. To provide higher gain and more efficient antennas having better beamforming characteristics, an array of two or more antennas may be operated as a phased array in which the array is electronically scanned to create a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to essentially point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. While the phased array may be linear, most phased antennas arrays are constructed as planar arrays in which a matrix of antennas (e.g., two-by-two, three-by-three, four-by-four, five-by-five, etc.) are provided in substantially the same plane. In a phased antenna array, the RF signal from the transmitter is fed to the individual antennas with the correct respective phase relationships so that the RF signals from the separate antennas add together to increase the amount of radiation in a desired direction and, similarly, subtract from one another to decrease radiation in an undesired directions, thus leading to better beamforming or directionality of the antenna array.
While relatively small antenna arrays (e.g., two-by-two arrays and three-by-three arrays) may be relatively easy to control and to determine certain characteristics of the RF signal, such as the incidence angles, the complexity of determining antenna characteristics, such as the proper phase for each individual antenna relative to the other antennas, incidence angles, etc., increases dramatically as the antenna arrays become larger. As a result, the computational ability of the associated transceivers and electronic devices similarly increases, thus leading to larger and more expensive devices that tend to have higher power consumption.